Landers: Value wealthy hunters by what they give, not by what they get

A year’s worth of fund-raising banquets and silent auctions can be matched in a heartbeat by a single check from a big-bucks beneficiary.

Hunters, anglers, nature lovers and the entire planet benefit from rich people who unleash some of their fortunes for preserving wildlife habitat rather than building another getaway mansion in a pristine setting. So to them, we say thanks.

But examples in Idaho, Montana and Washington stand out as warnings to be aware of people who try to buy our trust.

In Idaho, members of the state Fish and Game Commission are getting the cold shoulder from Gov. Butch Otter, likely for taking a stand against legislators’ wishes to give more hunting tag options for the wealthy.

The commission took its stand last fall after surveying the state’s sportsmen and finding they opposed proposals to allow large landowners to sell hunting tags. They especially opposed auctioning more of their coveted once-in-a-lifetime big-game hunting opportunities to the highest bidders.

The commissioners stood up for the average hunter. Now the governor is looking to replace former commission chairman Mark Doerr of Twin Falls and current chairman Will Naillon.

“The commission did not change policy due to the overwhelming input of the sportsmen,” Doerr said in a statement. “The legislators were not happy and it is unfortunate their influence impacted the governor’s decision on commission reappointments.”

“The personal, political and financial gain offered by special interests must be intoxicating for those in leadership in the Idaho Legislature, because they continually ignore the will of the majority of their constituents, in this case, the sportsmen of Idaho.”

In Montana, an out-of-stater who owns prime fishing and hunting acreage has bought himself a cozy relationship with Ducks Unlimited despite his shady attempts to block average sportsmen from public natural resources.

In October, Montana sportsman and freelance writer Don Thomas wrote a piece entitled A Rift Runs Through It, for Outside Bozeman magazine, about the legal battle in Montana to secure and maintain public access to Ruby River, a southwestern Montana tributary to the Beaverhead.

Thomas pointed out how James Cox Kennedy, the Atlanta-based billionaire chairman of media giant Cox Enterprises, had worked the courts in attempts to prevent legal public access.

Ducks Unlimited’s response was to kill the messenger. Instead of recognizing Thomas for standing up for the average sportsmen who bid on waterfowl art at DU auctions, officers dropped his long-time column in DU Magazine and said, “Goodbye troublemaker.”

DU has honored Kennedy for being among the wetlands conservation organization’s biggest donors, and, okay, that serves the group’s mission. But he’s buying more than habitat for ducks.

Kennedy owns property along eight miles of the Ruby River and has been involved in a long-running litigation that has gone to Montana’s Supreme Court once and may find its way back.

In December, the Associated Press reported that Kennedy had donated $100,000 to a secretive conservative group accused of breaking Montana’s campaign finance laws to influence elections.

Kennedy and others contributed to issue-advocacy group Montana Growth Network, which financed ads supporting the winner of the 2012 state Supreme Court election and opposing the two other candidates.

The biggest “dark money” checks came from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Charles Schwab of Charles Schwab Corp., each of whom gave $200,000. Schwab also is involved in challenging Montana’s stream access laws, which sportsmen consider vital to preserving their right to reach public waters as wealthy people continue to buy and lock up choice properties.

What’s alarming is that while Kennedy is buying votes and court decisions to secure more than his share of heaven in the West, he’s also apparently buying the favor of conservation groups that sportsmen consider to be on their side.

DU, while shunning the messenger – Thomas, assisted in the nomination of Kennedy for a national wetlands conservationist of the year award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

So far the stream access lawsuits have been denied repeatedly in court thanks to the efforts of the Montana Public Land and Water Access Association. We’ll have to see if the case returns to the state’s top court to know if Kennedy’s money served his purpose in the judicial elections.

In Washington, a day in court has been postponed for a wealthy West Side hunter charged last with shooting a virtually tame trophy bull elk last season in a closed area near Ellensburg.

Tod Reichert, 76, of Salkum, is charged with second-degree unlawful hunting of big game, a gross misdemeanor, for allegedly having locals lead him to the bull residents called “Bullwinkle.” Reichert is charged with shooting the trophy elk in an area closed to hunting branch-antlered bulls. Apparently he then drove the bull’s carcass to a legal hunting area in order to tag and field dress it.

Reichert’s is well known in elk “conservation” circles for his willingness to spend a fortune on raffle and auction tags to facilitate his trophy hunting.

Described as “a strong supporter of elk hunting and improving elk habitat,” he has killed several record-book bulls by outbidding other rich trophy hunters to get coveted tags, including $40,000 for the 2007-08 New Mexico Governor’s Tag, $19,000 for the 2001 Oregon Governor’s Tag, $16,000 for the 2003 edition, and an unpublished amount for the 1999 California tule bull elk tag.

But trophy hunting has a way of stalking the ragged edge of poaching when hunters get greedy.

In 2007, Reichert bought Washington’s first East Side Governor’s Tag and killed a trophy elk in the Umatilla National Forest. However, he was later indicted for hiring a helicopter service to spot elk for the hunt, which is unlawful in Washington and most other states. He was also charged with lying to wildlife authorities about the guiding services he hired.

Reichert’s sentence included a $5,000 fine and a two-year ban from entering a national forest.

The pretrial hearing in his current “Bullwinkle” case originally set for May 31 in Lower Kittitas District Court was postponed until June 21. It’s possible that Reichert could be using his attorneys to postpone the hearing as long as it takes for him to fill his two current trophy tags purchased in March at the tag auctions facilitated this winter by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

A lot is at stake. Reichert bid $85,000 for the Pennsylvania tag and $75,000 for the Washington tag.

If he goes to court and is found guilty before those hunts, Reichert could lose his hunting privileges before those seasons start.

Either way, his auction bids will be used by RMEF and the state of Washington for wildlife conservation. Some people are okay with this system. Others aren’t so sure.

Bottom line: A wealthy man can buy just about anything he wants, but he should still have to earn our respect.